


Morality

by SSparkle



Series: Morality AU [2]
Category: Awesome Land (Cartoon)
Genre: Ableism, Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Dark, Amputation, Arson, Bad Puns, Best Friends, Betrayal, Blood and Gore, Breaking and Entering, Bugs & Insects, Cannibalism, Canon Trans Character, Card Games, Character Death, Charles Always Says the Absolute Worst Thing He Could Possibly Say, Charles Being Concerned, Charles Getting Uncomfortable, Childhood Trauma, Coming of Age, Corruption, Crimes Against Science, Death, Dissection, Dubious Science, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Established Relationship, Eventual Relationships, Eye Trauma, F/F, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Family Fluff, Gen, Gore, Happy Murder Family, Hellhounds, Hive Mind, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, Identity Issues, Illustrations, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Kinfic, M/M, Mad Science, Massacre, Memory Loss, Mental Health Issues, Minor Character Death, Misgendering, Multi, Murder, Nightmares, One Big Happy Family, Original Character(s), Past Child Abuse, Plot Twists, Polyamory, Psychological Torture, Psychological Trauma, Raising a Child, Repressed Memories, Revenge, Science Experiments, Slice of Life, Suicide Attempt, The Void, Torture, Trans Male Character, Transphobia, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unrequited Love, Vacation, Violence, Weird Plot Shit, kin, kin memories, kinkshaming, ressurection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 16:08:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9615395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SSparkle/pseuds/SSparkle
Summary: Clone Two blinked. “....Could a paintbrush even go to prison for manslaughter?”The room went silent.- - x - -Paintbrush is freed from the paintbrush itself. Things don't exactly go according to plan.What else do you expect from a weapon of mass destruction that was almost entirely only used to start a war?Rated mature for graphic descriptions of violence and gore. Please be careful and read the tags!!Spotify PlaylistPlaymoss Playlist





	1. paintbrush's legal records are called into question

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to jojo for the beautiful chapter name, i owe u my life,

Sometimes there are bad feelings you just can’t get rid of. Taylor was experiencing some right now.

 

It wasn’t a depression, or a negative thing that affected him, but rather a hunch. A hunch that if he looked away from Jacob for one second, all hell would break loose. After all, it wasn’t the first time it had happened.

 

For some reason the intern thought it would be a good idea to touch his machine, and in doing so nearly destroying the universe. But that story was for another time.

 

They had all come back relatively unscathed, including the new discovery that Jacob’s maniun-fueled paintbrush was apparently _alive_. This is what was bothering Taylor.

 

Maniun had a history of not being trustworthy. It was used heavily in World War One, after all. Taylor was not a man to judge for stereotypes but from what Jacob had explained to him, the paintbrush was _literally a murderer_. 

 

Coraline’s mother and Mary had both been killed with it’s power and Lord Xander and Anastasia (who was Mary’s girlfriend, apparently) had been trapped in stone.

 

And yet, after all this, Jacob was treating the living brush as a _friend_. Taylor may have been a patient at an insane asylum but not even he would trust the paintbrush.

 

“Maybe he didn’t mean to….?” A voice that sounded like him said from the other side of the room.

 

“Murder isn’t accidental, Clone Two.” Taylor responded, messing around with the wires on his now broken time portal.

 

“But what about that time you--”

 

“ _We don't talk about that_.”

 

“Actually, if he accidentally killed people that would be manslaughter. Not as bad.” Clone One said distantly, lying on the other side of the room as he refused to help Taylor with the machine.

 

“Still 12 months in prison.”

 

Clone Two blinked. “....Could a paintbrush even go to prison for manslaughter?”

 

The room went silent.

 

“ _I'm gonna need some time to think about this_.” Taylor mumbled as he slowly walked out of his cell.

 

“Do you think he’s gonna find out?”

 

“Nah.”


	2. anastasia is gay for anime characters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> anastasia is re-introduced to the world, agent 27 and overlord have a chat, and coraline paints.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is just. filler tbh.

“And _this_ is a cell phone.”

 

“Holy fuck.”

 

Mary snorted at her girlfriend’s profanity as she lowered the faulty phone from her hand. “It’s not _that_ impressive, it’s the IPhone 5.” 

 

Introducing Anastasia back into society had been a wild ride for Mary, seeing as her girlfriend had been in a comatose state for around 100 years. She had to explain things from demons to father issues to her, however Anastasia was taking it quite well.

 

“So,” Mary paused to lift up a disc with a extremely pricey tag on it, “wanna watch some anime? Apparently it’s Coraline’s favourite.”

 

“Isn’t that the thing you said had half-naked women?” 

 

“Yep.”

 

“Hell yeah!”

 

\---

 

“And _this_ is maniun.”

 

“Yes, I _know_ what maniun is. Can we skip to why it was so important for me to come to Earth?” 

 

Agent 27 sighed and pointed at the shoddily made powerpoint he had created. “What I’m trying to say is the paintbrush literally caused World War One with its existence. And it’s still out there!”

 

“Didn’t that boy have it?” The Alien Overlord sighed dramatically, his assistant sitting next to him while eating some weird Korean snack that Agent 27 had never heard of. 

 

“Jacob Lombard? Yes. But I don’t think he’s gonna give it over so easily.” The agent sighed while looking through folders of information he had on said boy. 

 

“You _could_ ask him. You helped save his friend after all.” The Overlord mumbled.

 

“Ah yes, because I’m going to walk up to a dangerous man with a dangerous weapon and ask him to hand it over.” Sarcasm dripped from his usual casual voice as he continued looking through files, before he found the page he was looking for. “ _Here_ it is.”

 

He quickly grabbed out a large and rather dusty folder, simply titled ‘Maniun’. “ _These_ are the files Agent 2 would never show to me. But now that he’s well… gone, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek.”

 

The Alien Overlord quickly gave his assistant a look, and he ran out of the room.

 

Quickly opening the folder, his eyes widened. “ _Oh dear_.” 

 

“What? What’s wrong?” Alien Overlord’s voice had a hint of interest at the agent’s sudden dismay. 

 

“ _It's alive_.”

 

The Overlord had to keep back a snort. “It’s _what_?”

 

“I--I’m not joking. The paintbrush. It’s sentient.”

 

Silence hung through the room.

 

Agent 27 ran a hand through his hair and sat back down. The chair squeaked uncomfortably. “Whatever the maniun did-- It made it _think_. It feels.”

 

The Overlord gulped. “W-Well, is that a thing maniun usually does in the Earth’s atmosphere?”

 

Agent 2 threw his hands into the air with a defeated wave. “I don’t know! This agency has been keeping secrets from me for years!” He kept looking through the files as his face grew more and more distressed. “Well this certainly makes things a lot more complicated.

 

If we try to take the thing, it’ll probably try to zap us to death, with or without it’s owner following it around. And god knows what _kind_ of powers it has!” His face scrunched up uncomfortably. “There’s a slim chance we’re going to contain that thing safely with all our limbs still intact.”

 

“ _Still_ a chance.”

 

Agent 2 laughed defeatedly. “I like your style.”

 

\---

 

Coraline dipped the brush into the water and watched the colour slowly melt away as she sighed. Painting was a hobby for her, but sometimes she used it to calm down. This was a time.

 

But even after painting three whole canvases different colours and shapes, she still felt one way: Hollow.

 

Coraline had lived a life of adventure and mystery, mostly due to her upbringing as a half-angel. She’d done things from battle the government to see the world change before her eyes.

 

_So why was this affecting her so much?_

 

The grip on the paintbrush she was holding tightened and she tried to ignore what the mere word reminded of her now. She laughed dryly. It was weird to think that something that had saved her life several times had also ruined her life. 

 

She could remember it like it was yesterday; mostly because she had to see it again yesterday. 

 

The drive started with some laughter and music, although the family spirit drowned out the happy tunes playing on the radio. Her mother was discussing Coraline’s future life. How she’d be amazing. Successful. The best daughter an angel could have.

 

Suddenly a rumbling came through the ground, and she looked around confused, wondering what was going on. The last thing Coraline heard before everything went white was a shout that sounded suspiciously like hers, and a deafening crash. 

 

_She didn’t want that thing calling her ‘love’._

 

She dropped the still wet paintbrush on the ground and turned away from her current painting, Mary’s final resting place, as she covered her eyes with her multi-coloured hair. At the moment she heard it talk, she was too accepting. Too tired. She just wanted to go home and hope the entire day was a dream. But now, it was hard to forget the smile in its voice.

 

The paintbrush, to be blunt, had killed her mother.

 

Of course, a part of her was glad it was its fault and not her boyfriend's, but it _was_ still someone's fault, if she could count the living object as a someone. Someone that Jacob trusted.

 

She ran her hands through her hair again to calm herself down and looked over at the unfinished painting.

 

Maybe she'd have a talk to Mary.


	3. jacob doesnt listen to taylor again the movie, or, trust issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its short for effect guys, we're not lazy,

Jacob groaned and looked at Paintbrush. “Okay, best out of 20?”

 

Paintbrush just snickered and moved the last piece over Jacob's, beating him for the 19th time in a row. "I think if I beat you one more time you'll lose your marbles, Jacob."

 

Jacob rolled his eyes and watched as the chess board phased out of existence, knowing that the other man was right. Before he could comment again, the paintbrush sighed and materialized a table to sulk on. "It would be nice to play chess for _real_ , though."

 

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked, raising an eyebrow at Paintbrush's sudden pensive look.

 

"You know, out of," Paintbrush waved his hands to the black area around them, " _here_." He quickly coughed and sat straight again. "I probably sound like an absolute sod right now, whining about stuff like this."

 

“What? No! It’s understandable! I’m sure no one would like to be in the uh, ...void?”

 

“Astral plane.”

 

“Yeah, whatever, that.”

 

“Actually Jacob, there _is_ a way to let me out of here, you just have to-”

 

Paintbrush was cut off as Coraline walked into Jacob’s room, ruining his concentration and pulling him out of Paintbrush’s realm. 

 

“Hey Jacob we were gonna- What are you doing?” She asked, looking at Jacob sitting on the floor.

 

“Oh! Just talking to Paintbrush! What is it we’re doing?” Jacob said cheerily, getting up.

 

He didn’t see Coraline’s wary look at the mention of Paintbrush.

 

-

 

“Hey! Taylor!” Jacob called, walking into his room. 

 

Taylor groaned, dropping the metal and wires he was fiddling with. It looked to Jacob like he was making some kind of… cube? “Go away, I’m busy.”

 

“What, no! I came all this way to talk to you about something, I’m not gonna go back now!”

 

Turning around with a sigh, Taylor said a simple “What?”

 

“Okay! So Paintbrush wants to be freed from the actual paintbrush itse-”

 

“No. Don’t you fucking dare Jacob. I don’t trust that thing.”

 

“We can’t just keep him locked up in a void his whole life! He’s already been in there for hundreds of years!”

 

“And maybe he’s in there for a _reason_ Jacob.”

 

“And maybe he’s not!” Jacob argued, running out of the room.

 

His mind was made up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome spiritofsky, th new co-author and also kinda a nerd??? dont tell them i said that lol,


	4. In which mistakes are made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, i cant believe its not witchcraft (it totally is) and jacob goes shopping

“Okay, Paintbrush? How do I free you from the paintbrush?”

 

“Oh! I knew you’d help eventually!” Paintbrush beamed, excitement dripping from his voice. “Okay, sorry mate but you’re gonna need to buy some stuff. Nothing too dear! Probably only a couple quid- ah, dollars.”

 

“...Alright.”

 

“Okay! So you’ll need two purple candles, two black ones, a big dark blue candle - it needs to be  _ dark blue,  _ don't bugger that up okay, - and maybe a bunch of sea salt, just if you want to be cautious.”

 

“Why would I need to be-”

 

“I said if you want to be cautious! You won't need it, just if you’re wary with magick, might make you feel better.”

 

“O-”

 

“Alright then! Crack on with it Jacob!”

 

-

 

“I got the stuff Pain-”

 

“Oh! Oh gosh you really did!” Paintbrush gushed from his place on the dresser. “You’re brill mate, really, thank you so much fo-!” 

 

“Okay! What do I need to do?” Jacob cut in.

 

“Oh! Sorry! I’m just chuffed to bits you know? I’m finally gonna be free! Okay, so lay out the candles, the blue one goes in the middle.”

 

“Yeah…?” Jacob prompted, setting out the candles the way he said on the floor.

 

“If you got the sea salt then sprinkle that around you in a circle. Clockwise Jacob! Alright, then place me in the middle!”

 

Jacob picked up Paintbrush. Holding it in his hands, it seemed to feel even more powerful than usual. As he placed him in the middle of the candles, Jacob started to feel incredibly jittery. 

 

“So now just light the candles from the center around,  _ clockwise,  _ and then just… Think about me getting out!”

 

Jacob flicked the lighter, shaking slightly. As the lighter began to burn, he started shaking more, almost burning his finger on the flame.

 

“Careful there mate! Wouldn’t want you burning your hand off!”

 

After lighting the candles, Jacob closed his eyes, starting to think about Paintbrush getting free-

 

“I told you it would hurt, right?”

 

Jacob was suddenly flooded with the most excruciating pain he has ever felt in his entire life. It was as if he was being ripped apart from the inside - no, not just his body being ripped apart, but being ripped from the universe - his blood felt like it was boiling, maybe it actually was.

 

Though it was only a few moments, it seemed to stretch on and on for an eternity, maybe two. 

 

And then it was over, a serene calm after the chaos. It was dark, quiet. _ Too dark, too quiet. _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

Paintbrush stood up, blew out the candles and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 


	5. paintbrush gets hungry

“Gosh! I’m really here! I really have my own body!” Paintbrush cheered, looking over his new physical form. It looked exactly as his astral form did.

 

He frowned, looking down at the candles. “Jacob! You didn’t use scented candles? I’m hurt!” He gasped over dramatically.“Remind me to never make you buy anything for me. Ever.”

 

Paintbrush suddenly giggled, looking down at the paintbrush in his hands. “Not like you can buy anything for me anymore from in there!”

 

He put the paintbrush in his pocket, and started to explore the house.

 

-

 

Walking into the kitchen, Paintbrush had a realisation. “Oh! Paintbrush you daft sod! Humans need to  _ eat,  _ that’s why I feel so weird!” He blinked. “What do humans eat again?”

 

“What?” Someone asked as they walked into the kitchen too. It was Jacob’s dad.

 

“Oh! You’re Jacob’s father, right? I’m one of his friends! I was just wondering what you have that uh, makes a good breakfast!”

 

“It’s the afternoon.”

 

“...I skipped breakfast.”

 

Jacob’s father gave him a look, but helped him out anyway. “We have some bacon. Protein’s good for breakfast.”

 

“Oh! Yes, meat! Why didn’t I think of that!”

 

Jacob’s father sat down at the kitchen table.

 

Paintbrush went for the knife block.

 

He put a hand on Jacob’s father’s shoulder, the knife raised above his head. “Now why would I eat packaged meat, when there’s fresh stuff right here? Fresh food is better for you you know!” He said with a wry smile.

 

Jacob’s dad went to make a noise, Paintbrush covered his mouth with his hand. “Whoopsie daisy! We can’t have the neighbours hearing now! Not just because, y’know, _ this is illegal _ , but we wouldn’t want to disturb them, right? For all I know they could be shattered!”

 

He reached for a couple of tea towels on the counter, stuffing one into Jacob’s father’s mouth and tying his hands to the chair with the other. “Lovely!” Paintbrush chimed, gently tapping him on the tip of his nose with his knife. “Sorry about the gag and ties mate, it’s just that people tend to scream and run away when you do this kind of thing!”

 

He turned the chair around so that Jacob’s father was facing him. Then Paintbrush drove the knife into his shoulder, twisting the knife from side to side to get a piece of flesh loose. Jacob’s father’s muffled screams got louder.

 

“There we are!” Paintbrush said, putting the knife down on the table to pull out the chunk of flesh. Some of it was still attached to his shoulder, but he easily pried it free.

 

Hand now dripping with blood, Paintbrush ate the chunk of flesh with a smile, looking Jacob’s father dead in the eyes. “I don’t get why you humans cook your food, too much faffing about with the cooker! It’s fine raw y’know!”

 

Grabbing another knife, a long serrated one, Paintbrush hit his shoulder with a quick, hard strike. The knife went fairly far into his shoulder, and with a twist and and another jerk, the knife cut a large section off. The teeth got slightly stuck for a moment, rending the flesh farther as Paintbrush put more force into the slice. The splatter of blood managed to coat the ceiling.

 

“Gosh! Look at that!” Paintbrush said, turning the slice of shoulder around in his hands. Blood ran down his chin as he took a bite.

 

After he finished off that section, Paintbrush held the knife above his head and slashed down, cleaving off almost the entire side of Jacob’s father’s upper arm. Blood splattered all over the floor and walls with this, blood dripping a pooling on the tile below the chair. Paintbrush smiled as some soaked his jacket.

 

He grabbed the section of flesh with his hands rather than using a knife, his fingernails digging and ripping at flesh, a leg braced against one of the table legs. It took a bit of effort but the section of arm came off, flesh under Paintbrush’s fingernails and arms stained with blood.

 

After eating that portion of arm, Paintbrush’s face and shirt were covered in blood. He tried to wipe some off with the back of his hand, but that was also bloody. With a small sigh he went to look for a tea towel in the drawers.

 

He had trouble finding the tea towels, but a large smile split across his face as he found the drawer filled with kitchen tools. Everything from extra knives to scissors to metal skewers. “Oh look at all of this!” Paintbrush exclaimed as he pulled out a long metal skewer. 

 

He looked at Jacob’s father with a smile.

 

Paintbrush walked over to him and very, very slowly drove the skewer through his other shoulder, delighting in his muffled sounds of pain and the blood flowing onto the floor. The room smelled of iron.

 

Once the skewer was all the way through, Paintbrush laughed and spun on his heel, eagerly pulling all kinds of implements from the drawer.

 

He sliced at Jacob’s father’s flesh with scissors, stuck skewers and knives and even a microplane grater into him. By the time Paintbrush had finished with all of the sharp tools at his disposal the walls and floor were covered in blood and Jacob’s father has fainted.

 

“Oh no! Can’t have you dozing off on me!” Paintbrush said, grabbing the paintbrush out of his pocket to wake him up via magick. There wouldn’t be a way to wake him up quickly normally with that amount of blood loss. 

 

As Jacob’s father opened his eyes, Paintbrush grabbed the first knife, looking at him with a smile. “Well I’m sorry mate, but I’ve had my fun and I’m all full up for now!” With that he sliced open his throat, blood spurting out of the severed artery. 

 

“Oh lovely! Arteries sure do bleed nicely!”

 

With Jacob’s father dead and Paintbrush no longer hungry, he rummaged around the room for some tea towels to clean the blood off his face with. He wouldn’t bother to clean the room.

 

He had just settled down at the kitchen table when he heard the sound of a lock fitting into the front door.

 

Paintbrush got up and pulled a knife out of Jacob’s father’s body and smiled as Jacob’s mother walked through the kitchen door.


	6. jacob cries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> shoutout to donutstudios for,, reading the fic and basically calling it 'pleasant'  
> cant believe you didnt cry at this edgy gore fest thanks jacob

Paintbrush appeared in the astral plane, his astral form covered in as much blood as his physical form was. “Ah, hiya Jacob! Just thought I’d pop in to check up on you before we properly start the day!” The latter sentence was spoken with a slight edge and a big, sharp-toothed smile. 

 

Jacob was sitting in the empty black void, head against his knees. He looked up with a jolt as Paintbrush spoke, his eyes were red and face wet with tears. “Y- You!”

 

“The one and only paintbrush, in the flesh! ...Or rather in the, ah, astral projected form!” He said with a smile.

 

Jacob glared at him, staring dead in his eyes, shakily standing up. He suddenly ran at Paintbrush and pushed him to the ground, starting to cry again. 

 

“You fucking- You killed them and- I- I trusted you-!” He sobbed, barely even able to form a sentence. 

 

Paintbrush stood up as Jacob tried to speak, only crying and forming fragments of sentences. He placed his hand on Jacob’s shoulder, smearing his father’s blood all over his shirt. Jacob looked up at him, fear plain as day in his eyes. Paintbrush teasingly tapped him lightly on the nose with his other hand. “Don’t push me, alright Jacob?” He said.

 

And with that Paintbrush punched him in the face.

 

Jacob was knocked back with the shock and force, falling over backwards onto the floor. His lip was cut open against one of his teeth and his glasses shattered.

 

He pulled the smashed glasses off of his face, careful as to not drop shattered glass everywhere, becoming acutely aware of a piece of glass stuck in his cheek.

 

Paintbrush watched with a smile as Jacob slowly pulled the shard of glass out of his skin. He winced and cried out as blood dripped out of the wound. The shard was a little longer and more jagged than he expected. He dropped the blood covered shard next to his shattered glasses at his side. 

 

“Oh dear me! It seems I’ve broke your glasses mate!” Paintbrush said with an over exaggerated gasp. “Here, take these.” He said, pulling his own glasses off of his face and holding them out for Jacob.

 

Jacob stared at them, a hesitant hand raised slightly towards them.

 

“ _ That wasn’t an offer Jacob. Take the glasses. _ ”

 

Jacob looked up at the glint in Paintbrush’s eyes and quickly grabbed the glasses. He felt a little nauseous as they fit perfectly, even feeling… right somehow.

 

“Oh there we go Jacob! Those look smashing on you, even more than the smashed ones did!” He said with a smile, laughing at his own pun. 

 

Paintbrush turned and walked away, almost as if he was going to walk out of a door that wasn’t there. Before he left, he turned back and looked at Jacob with an unsettling smile.

 

“I think we’re going to be the best of friends Jacob!” He said cheerily before disappearing.

  
  


Jacob was again left alone in the inky black void.


	7. a good start to a friendship

Paintbrush pulled another pair of glasses out of his pocket as he arrived back in the physical world. He always knew it was a good idea to keep a spare pair or two. He’d already lost three of his spare pairs in the astral plane alone, which was impressive considering there wasn’t exactly much to lose it  _ in  _ most of the time.

 

He stretched and smiled. It was time to pay a visit to some of his  _ friends. _

 

-

 

Charles and Dan lay curled up together on one of Charles’ many large couches. They were happily watching a movie together, it was a really bad movie, but their joking commentary made it entertaining. 

 

One of the doors opened without them noticing, too focused on the film, or maybe it was each other. Probably each other. Paintbrush, still covered in Jacob’s father’s blood, stood in the doorway, watching on for a few moments before greeting them with a sudden, loud, cheery “Oh hello lads!”

 

Dan and Charles both jumped in shock at the sudden loud noise, then made another scared, surprised sound as they saw a strange man in the doorway covered in blood.

 

“Ah hello Daniel - or, Dan? Can I call you Dan? I’m gonna call you Dan - and Charles too! I’m sorry for intruding on your date like this!” He said, walking around to the back of the couch and leaning his crossed forearms on it, slightly looming over Dan and Charles from behind. Charles made a little upset sound as Paintbrush got blood all over his expensive couch.

 

“Hey! What the fuck? Who are you? Get away from-” Daniel yelled. Paintbrush ignored him.

 

“Well! I hope you’re having a nice evening anyway!” He beamed. “I’m Paintbrush, y’know, from inside the paintbrush.” He held up the paintbrush as he said this. “It’s nice to formally meet you two!”

 

“Wh- Why are you… covered in blood…?” Charles asked carefully.

 

“What, this?” He said, pulling at the bottom of his bloodstained shirt as he looked down at himself. “Don’t mind that! It’s no big deal!”

 

“Murder kind of is a big deal-!” Dan yelled. Paintbrush waved him off.

 

“Oh Dan! It really isn’t a big deal I’m telling you!” Paintbrush then clapped his hands together with a smile, looking at Charles.”Now! Down to why I came here!”

 

Paintbrush grabbed Charles and pulled him up from the couch and across the room by his shoulders. Dan immediately got to his feet, grabbing the chaos cylinder inside his pocket.

 

“You let Charles go right now or I’ll shoot you-!” He yelled, turning the cylinder into a handgun.

 

"Okay, okay," Paintbrush laughed dryly, "I'll let your boyfriend go! I can see how much you care for him."    
  
Daniel blinked. "Wh...why are you--" 

 

With a wave of the paintbrush, they were all in an empty, tiled room. Dan was tied back, the handgun Dan was holding dropped to the floor and transformed back into the cylinder.   
  
Paintbrush's expression twisted again. "But you know... It sure does get lonely around the astral plane without a hand to hold. Jacob doesn’t exactly like me, ever since I killed and ate his parents-”

 

There were two horrified shouts of “What!?” that Paintbrush promptly ignored.

 

“I'm sure you won’t mind if I  _ take one _ , right?"

 

“Wh- What do you mean take one!?” Daniel shouted, Paintbrush ignored him, instead walking over to Charles, the paintbrush held tightly in his hands and a grin on his face. Before Daniel could properly process what was happening, Charles was kneeling next to a table, with his arm outstretched and tied down over it.

 

“N-No!” Charles yelled, realising what was happening. 

 

“Yes!” Paintbrush replied cheerily, walking over to Dan. He grabbed the chaos cylinder off of the floor beside him. 

 

“Hm,” Paintbrush muttered, running a finger down the blade of the knife it had turned into. “A little blunt… Oh well! It’ll have to do!”

 

Both Charles and Daniel started yelling as Paintbrush walked back over to Charles. “Oh bloody hell guys, keep it down alright? You’re giving me a headache!”

 

They both quieted in fear, Charles still crying, though softly. “Ah, much better! Anyway, this is my first time conducting an amputation, so I’m sorry if it doesn’t turn out too well!” Paintbrush said with a sheepish yet excited smile.

 

And with that, he plunged the rather blunt knife into Charles’ arm. Charles screamed in pain as his own blood splashed over his and Paintrush’s arms. He was sobbing now. Daniel started to feel sick. He could hear the steady sound of his blood dripping onto the tile.

 

“Oh gosh! That’s a lot farther than I expected for such a blunt knife! This cylinder thing is good Dan, thank you for letting me borrow it!”

 

“I didn’t fucking let you borrow it! You stole it!”

 

“Ah well,” Paintbrush shrugged. “All the same isn’t it!”

 

“No it isn’t!”

 

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He waved Daniel off, eyeing the deep gash in Charles’ arm. He raised the knife and drove it into the wound. There was a sickening crunch of bone. Charles screamed again, sobbing madly now. Daniel felt even more sick. The room smelled of metal, oddly sickly sweet. It didn’t help. Not at all.

 

“Oh wow! Down to the bone already? You are a scrawny fellow though love!”

 

“Don’t fucking call him that!”

 

“What, scrawny? He does need to p-”

 

“No you fuck! Don’t call him ‘love’!”

 

“Aw, is someone jealous?” Paintbrush teased, poking him in the cheek, smearing Charles’ blood over his face. Daniel tried to headbutt his arm away. 

 

“You fucking glorified stick of chalk, the second I’m out of these I’ll smash your head against the wall ‘till I can paint with your goddamn brains! How’s that fucking sound, huh? You’re a paintbrush after all!  _ How about I use you like one? _ ”

 

“Huh, what a good idea Dan!”

 

Paintbrush shoved his head back against the wall, hard. Charles made a strangled noise from across the room. Daniel felt dizzy.

 

“Aye, don’t shout at me. Alright? Unless you want head trauma. In that case I’d be happy to smash your head against the wall more!” He beamed, turning back around to Charles. The knife was still stuck deep in his arm.

 

Paintbrush reached to pull it out of his arm. It was stuck. 

 

He frowned, bracing himself against the table. He still couldn’t get it out.

 

“Oh bollocks! I knew that knife was naff! Your cylinder is rubbish Dan!” He started twisting the knife around to try and get it free. Charles cried out in pain, choking on his own tears his body was wracked with sobs.

 

With a final pull the knife was free, spraying blood all over Paintbrush and Daniel with the force. Daniel could feel the heat of Charles’ blood on his face, the awful metallic, almost salty,  smell was overwhelming. He’d never felt so sick in his life.

 

Daniel coughed, and before he knew it he was gagging and throwing up and it was  _ all over him.  _ He couldn’t tell if the smell of blood or vomit was worse.

 

Taking no notice of Daniel throwing up behind him, Paintbrush took off his glasses and frowned. He patted a pocket and then gasped.

 

“Oh blast! I forgot to bring a glasses cloth…! You don’t mind if I use your shirt, right Charles?” He asked, already wiping his glasses off on a section that wasn’t bloodied.

 

“Alright,” Paintbrush turned the knife back into the chaos cylinder. “Let’s try something different… Say, do you have a preference Charles?”

 

Charles weakly shook his head, wiping tears and blood off his face with his free hand. 

 

“Oh! I had a great idea lads! How about a chainsaw? That sounds so fun! And arms can’t be too different from trees, right? Right. I’m right.”

 

“Don’t you fucking da-!”

 

With that, the cylinder transformed into a chainsaw. Paintbrush pulled the cord a few times, unable to get it started. “Huh… What’s up with this thi-” With another pull, the room was filled with the loud revving of a chainsaw. A large grin spread across Paintbrush’s face. “Ah… There we go!”

 

Eyes wide, Charles started whimpering as the chainsaw neared his arm. 

 

Blood and small chunks of flesh and bone flew everywhere, covering the walls and everyone in the room. Daniel shut his eyes tight, but he couldn’t block out the sound of the chainsaw and Charles’ screams of pain. They were almost as loud as the chainsaw. It was deafening. He almost threw up again as a piece of Charles’ flesh hit his face.

 

 

“Ah… There we go!” Paintbrush said, turning off the chainsaw as he finished sawing through Charles’ arm. He was pale, slightly dizzy from his blood loss and surprised he hadn’t thrown up too. 

 

“That wasn’t so bad now, was it?” Paintbrush said cheerily.

 

Nobody said anything.

 

“Aw, spoilsports.” Paintbrush said, going over and grabbing Charles’ arm off of the table. He held it out towards Charles with a laugh. “Need a hand getting out of those ropes?”

 

Charles stared at his amputated arm being held out in front of his face. It was covered in his blood, dripping with it slightly. He could still feel it giving off heat.

 

“Ah, actually-” Paintbrush began, looking at the remnants of Charles’ arm still on his body. “I’ll need to round that out just a smidge if you want a prosthetic. It’ll just take a jiffy!”

 

Once he’d rounded out the stump with a knife - a sharp one this time - Paintbrush smiled and untied Charles. He stared at his arm, or, where his arm should’ve been. 

 

Charles fainted.

 

“Aw, out a like a light!” Paintbrush cooed, looking down at Charles’ fainted body.

 

“You- You piece of shit-” Dan started to yell insults at Paintbrush, who sighed and ignored him.

 

Paintbrush grabbed Charles’ amputated arm and the chaos cylinder and freed Dan and Charles from their bindings. Dan quickly ran over to Charles, checking for a pulse and sighing with relief. Dan looked up at Paintbrush.

 

“Toodles!” Paintbrush called, disappearing into the astral plane with Charles’ arm and the chaos cylinder safely in his possession. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3c


	8. gage finally appears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey sorry this chapter took forever but gage is hard to write (i mean i kinda gave up w it as youll see but w/e)

 

“Hiya Jacob!” Paintbrush called as he appeared in the astral plane, even more bloodstained than before and clearly hiding something behind his back. “I can’t wait to show you what I just got!”

 

Jacob looked up at him in fear. “Is… is there an option to not look at what you’ve got?”

 

Paintbrush laughed. “No! Look!” And with that he pulled an amputated human arm, still covered in blood, from behind his back.

 

“Paintbrush what the fuck!?” Jacob yelled, backing away.

 

“I know! I know! It’s such a messy cut… I’ll get better at it though! It was my first amputation after all! Oh gosh! I should thank Charles for letting me practice on him! It completely slipped my mind!”

 

“Wh-! That’s… That’s Charles’ arm?” Jacob choked out, staring at the arm in Paintbrush’s hands. 

 

“Sure is! Cool right? Oh! Oh and that’s not the best bit!” He said, pulling something out of his pocket. It was the chaos cylinder. “Look what I borrowed from Dan! Or, ‘stole’ as he put it.” Paintbrush sighed, rolling his eyes as he made air quotes. “I’d never nick anything from one of my  _ dear friends. _ ”

 

“Is- Is Dan alright?  _ Is Charles alright? _ ” Jacob asked frantically. 

 

“Aw, they’ll be right as rain! So long as Charles doesn’t bleed out!” Paintbrush said with a shrug and a smile. “Just depends on how fast they are to medical help!”

 

Jacob made a strangled sound, Paintbrush ignored him, creating a chair in the void and setting Charles’ arm down on it. “There we are! Now Armold has his own seat!”

 

“You- You named it?”

 

“Oh!” Paintbrush gasped over dramatically, looking at his wrist. “Look at the time! I’ve got to go! See you soon Jacob! Play nice with Armold!” Paintbrush wasn’t wearing a watch.

 

Jacob stared at Charles arm, at least he had something to look at now.

 

He felt sick as he started to think about if Charles and Dan would be alright.

 

-

 

“Taylor!” Dan yelled, near kicking down the door. “Holy fuck!”

 

Taylor looked over, unimpressed, only for his eyes to widen as he saw Dan, covered in blood and holding Charles, who was missing an arm.

“Wh- what happened?” Taylor asked as he pushed everything off one of his desks. He was a messy boy.

 

“Paintbrush happened.” Dan said simply, barely concealed anger in his voice.

 

Taylor froze. “Are- are you saying Jacob actually  _ let it out?  _ Like I explicitly told him  _ not to do? _ ”

 

“Apparently. I don’t know where Jacob is, if he’s even… if he’s even alive.”

 

Taylor stared at the now empty table for a moment, chewing at his lip, before looking back up at Dan. “Well? What are you doing? Put him down! You’re getting blood all over my floor, and I’m gonna have to be the one to clean it up!”

 

Dan gingerly set Charles down on the table.

 

“Oh, actually Daniel, here,” Taylor handed Dan a mop, “you spilled Charles’ blood everywhere-  _ in my room -  _ so you’re gonna clean it up, thanks.”

 

Dan sighed and took the mop from him, ignoring Taylor’s next comment, something about tears.

 

Taylor looked over at Charles, making a small annoyed noise as he looked at the stump where his arm used to be. “Sloppy work...” He muttered, looking over it. He sighed as he got blood all over the sleeves of his coat, rolling them up to his elbows. Dan, who was watching Taylor nervously, tried not to stare at the scars lining his arms. Looking at Charles didn’t help.

 

Soon Charles’ arm had been cleaned and wrapped up in bandages, and he had been given a clean, not bloodsoaked, shirt. He pulled nervously at it, feeling uncomfortable in front of people without a binder. Taylor just urged him to sleep.

 

Dan sat with his back to the wall, just barely watching Taylor as he started building Charles a prosthetic arm. He was too zoning out and worrying about Charles.

 

-

 

Paintbrush hummed a cheery tune as he sharpened a set of knives with a smile on his face. The knife set was miraculously clear of blood,  _ for now, _ unlike Paintbrush himself.

 

There was a sudden knock on the door. Paintbrush’s head jerked up in surprise, his smile widening. He took a large, now very sharp, knife from the set, twirling it in his fingers slightly. This one would do nicely.

 

He opened the door, using the same hand as he was using to hold the knife, hiding it from view.

It was Gage at the door. Paintbrush smiled. “Oh, Gage! Come in! Jacob’s just in the other room!” He ushered him into the room and closed the door behind him, not giving him a choice. 

 

“Hey? You been painting?” Gage asked, staring at Paintbrush.

 

Paintbrush tugged at the corner of his shirt a little. “Oh! This? Yeah, the kitchen! I made a right mess of it aha!”

 

“So which room’s Jacob in again?”

 

“Oh! That? Jacob isn’t here at the moment actually! Please feel free to leave a message after the tone!” And with that Paintbrush stabbed him with force in the chest. “The tone is your cry of pain, by the way.”

 

Gage coughed up blood, gasping for breath from the sudden stab. Paintbrush grinned, twisting the knife as he forcefully pulled the blade out of his chest, splattering blood onto the walls and ceiling. “Oh nice! We can paint the living room too!”

 

Gage took a shaky step back, but Paintbrush swung the knife back around, hitting him square in the neck. Blood gushed out of the severed artery, covering the walls and floor with the spray. 

 

Paintbrush looked down at Gage with a sigh, pulling the knife out of his neck. “Sorry about that mate! I’d usually take longer, but ah… Well, you were kind of an unexpected visitor! No time to prepare. Oh, actually-” Paintbrush gave him one last stab to be sure.

 

He ran a finger against the edge of the knife, looking down at Gage with a thoughtful hum. “Oh! Maybe I could do something fun with your corpse to make up for it!” He said suddenly with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its not necrophilia i swear to god


	9. taylor FUCCS STUFF UP

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> taylor becomes the Science Police, dan may be a little concerned

Dan hesitantly peered into the living room window. The glass almost seemed frosted with red, but he could still see inside through the blood and the curtains.

 

Paintbrush wasn’t looking at him, his eyes were trained on the ground, or rather, something on the ground. Probably some _ body.  _ Dan couldn’t quite see what - or who - it was, but he could clearly see the large knife in Paintbrush’s hand, dripping with blood. 

 

Carefully, Dan stood up slightly from his crouching position to look at who Paintbrush was stabbing. He took a sharp breath and quickly sat back down as he saw Gage’s dead body. 

 

He gritted his teeth, pushing his emotions aside for the moment. Paintbrush was just standing there, holding the knife lazily in one hand and staring down at Gage, seemingly thinking about what to do.

 

With a sudden wide smile and gleam in his eyes, Paintbrush started to cut into Gage’s chest. It almost looked like some kind of messy surgery. Dan looked away, he’d seen enough.

 

-

 

“Uh, hey Taylor. How’s Charles doing?” Dan asked, walking into Taylor’s room. Taylor was standing at a table near the back of the room, sifting through -  _ Dan had no idea what that was _ \- ...science stuff.

 

“Sleeping.” Taylor said simply, not looking up from his searching. “And Paintbrush?”

 

Dan grimaced. “He seems… happy. He- He killed Gage, probably. Or if not he’ll be dead by now.”

 

“Hm, why’s that?” Taylor asked, Dan didn’t like how unaffected he seemed. Then again, he couldn’t say anything…

 

“Uh, he was doing some weird surgery thing I guess? Pulling out all his organs I think...”

 

Taylor finally looked over, his green eyes intense. It was kinda creepy. “Like, an autopsy?  _ Oh please tell me he was doing it right. _ ”

 

Dan scratched the back of his neck. “Don’t think so, it looked pretty messy.” 

 

Taylor stood up with resolve, rolling up his sleeves and rifling through another table on the opposite side of the room. “I appreciate good science, but botched science? I can’t stand for that Daniel.” Dan blinked at the sudden change in tone, Taylor actually seemed really angry. “I mean, it’s not like it’s something he could fuck up, that’s par for the course in science.  _ But an autopsy? There’s a set way to do things Dan! _ ” 

 

Taylor pulled out a knife from the messy pile of… science stuff on his desk. “Uh, Taylor? Don’t you think this is a bit of an extreme reaction?” He was about to ask why he was allowed a knife, but then he remembered the awful safety standards in the hospital.

 

“This isn’t an extreme reaction! This is perfectly justified. An extreme reaction would be francium and water or something-” Taylor paused. “-okay maybe that’s a little  _ too  _ extreme of a reaction but you get me!”

 

“Taylor-” Dan started, but he was already out the door.

 

Dan blinked. He knew the hospital had bad safety standards but could he seriously just  _ leave? _

 

-

 

“Oh whoa boy! They just keep on comin’ huh!” Paintbrush exclaimed wide eyed as he pulled out Gage’s intestines. They pooled in a bloody pile beside him. There were a few other organs around him too, though not in a neat(ish) pile like the intestines.

 

There was a large crash from the room over, the sound of running and suddenly the door was slammed wide open. “Of course they just keep coming! The human body contains 7.5 metres of intestines you fuck!”

 

“Oh! Thanks for the info mate! But uh,  _ what? _ ” 

 

“Yeah! I know! It’s so basic any self respecting scientist would know that at the least! Even non-biologists, but you’re clearly not judging by this-! this mess!” He gestured to Gage’s corpse. “What is this? This isn’t a fucking autopsy! This is just carnage!”

 

“I mean I sure do love carnage!” Paintbrush beamed. “Really though,  _ who are you and why are you here? _ ”

 

“I’m Taylor! Y’know, the scientist? From the psychiatric ward? And the talent show?  _ Please tell me you remember the talent show I put a lot of effort into that performance. _ ”

 

“Oh! That! Of course I do love, clapped from the astral plane - oh actually could I get your autograph?”

 

Taylor stopped. “Oh, yeah actually, I uh...” He pulled a thick, heavy looking notebook out of one of his large lab coat pockets, the cover was covered in messy doodles and notes, extra pieces of paper and sticky notes hanging out of it. There was a plain white sticker on the front with ‘FIELD NOTES’ written boldly in black, seemingly sharpie, less messy than the rest of the handwriting, and then written smaller in red was ‘CLONE ONE AND CRYSTAL - STOP TOUCHING THIS, IT’S MINE OK’.

 

He scribbled out a quick ‘Taylor’, before pausing and adding a couple of stars. “Here.” He ripped out the page and handed it to Paintbrush.

 

“Oh wow fab!” Paintbrush said, taking the paper. “I’d’ve preferred it in blood though.”

 

Taylor blinked. “Oh, right. Enough autograph signing, I came here to stab you for  _ crimes against science. _ ”

 

“Wh-” Paintbrush was cut off as Taylor stabbed him in the shoulder.

 

“ _ Crimes against science Paintbrush. _ ” He said, not breaking eye contact until he had left the room.

 

-

 

“Okay, I’m back Daniel.” Taylor sighed, walking through the door, his knife gone and lab coat now sporting a few splashes of blood.

 

“Taylor what the fuck did you do?” Dan asked, getting up from where he was sitting next to Charles. 

 

“Stabbed him.” Taylor said bluntly, grabbing pair of scissors from a desk. “He took my autograph though.”

 

“He murders three or four people and you give him your  _ autograph? _ ”

 

Taylor shrugged. “He asked for it. I have no self esteem Daniel, I’ll take what I can get.”

 

“Uh… You OK Taylor?”

 

Taking the scissors and cutting out sections of his labcoat, Taylor didn’t look up. He just sighed, deadpan. “Daniel I’m in a psychiatric ward what do you expect.”

 

“Were… you always like this or am I missing something.”

 

“ _ Depressive episode Dan. _ ”

 

“Oh.” Dan blinked. “Wait what are you doing?”

 

“I got Paintbrush’s blood on my coat. Gotta cut it off.”

 

“Can’t you just wash it, like, everyone else ever.”

 

Taylor started sewing patches of fabric onto the sections. The colours didn’t quite match the white of the lab coat. “The washing machines are shit. They’d stain it pink.  _ Pink isn’t my colour Dan. _ ”

 

He supposed not.


	10. taylor loves th CRONCH

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> paintbrush has some fun, and a meeting goes terribly wrong

As Taylor left the house, near slamming the door on the way out, Paintbrush looked down at the knife sticking out of his shoulder. He grinned, pulling the knife out of his shoulder with unnecessary force, some of his blood now joining Gage’s on the wall.

 

“Taylor huh?” Paintbrush began, examining the knife. “Interesting fellow! What do you think, Jacob?” He looked over at the paintbrush he had left lying on the coffee table. 

 

There was no response. Paintbrush sighed. “Oh, right. Still haven’t got used to your powers yet, have you love? Well, I suppose I don’t  _ need _ your input... Oh but I want to hear your screams of anguish at the gorey death of our friend at my hands!” 

 

He laughed, something between a dark chuckle and a giggle, joy and honey and poison in his voice, almost dripping with the blood he had spilt. “I suppose I could… patch you in~!”

 

Jacob suddenly found himself able to talk, at least in a way, to Paintbrush. Something more like telepathy. Paintbrush expected that Jacob would have took this opportunity to yell.

 

Jacob was completely silent.

 

“You uh, know you can talk to me now, right mate?” Paintbrush asked with a nervous laugh, his too wide too sharp grin faltering for a moment. “Come on! Where’s the death threats, cries of emotional pain? I haven’t got all day y’know, I’d like to take a break for tea and maybe stop by a chippy by half two.”

 

Jacob was completely silent.

 

“Aw, fell out with me Jacob? Jacob, Jake, Jakey, Jakey-boy, Jaco-” Paintbrush continued prodding, growing almost whiny sounding, slumping over the coffee table he was leaning on. “This isn’t as much fun if you’re not vocally suffering. It adds a nice ambiance and all.”

 

Jacob was completely silent.

 

Paintbrush huffed, sitting up straighter and crossing his arms. “Sure, fine. I see what you’re doing here, being difficult and all.”

 

His wicked sharp smile was back, all happy smiles and and sunny energy, bouncing on his heels a little as he stood up again. It was like he was never upset a few moments ago. “Oh! How about we just carry on with our fun? Maybe that will grab your attention, right Jacob? Get you talking again!”

 

Jacob didn’t say anything, but he shuffled slightly in the astral. Paintbrush took that as a victory. It’s the little things in life, huh?

 

It didn’t take much digging around for Paintbrush to find a sheet of plain paper. The main issue he had was not getting blood from his hands all over it. He frowned and shook his hand as a piece stuck to it. It didn’t come loose, so he peeled it away reluctantly, not wanting to get more blood on the paper if it was possibly salvageable.

 

He blinked as he looked at the bloody handprint he’d made. “Aw! Cute! Now should I frame it or put it up on the fridge…? Oh Jacob! That little bumblebee fridge magnet is cute-”

 

\---

 

Paintbrush seemingly got distracted by everything in the house on his quest for a sheet of clean, plain paper. (In his defense, he had never had a real physical form before. It was all very new and exciting.) Eventually, he somehow settled down in the living room, next to Gage’s corpse, with a clean sheet of paper.

 

“Jacob! You like art right? Any suggestions?” He asked, chewing a nail as he stared at the blank paper.

 

“Here’s a suggestion, give me my life back.” Jacob said, almost keeping his voice a flat monotone, but it cracked at the end in a mix of fear and sadness.

 

“Aw Jacob. That’s a little vague. Never been good with surrealism and all of that, do you think so too? It’s hard innit? Oh! A flower! I can draw a sunflower! Can't really go wrong with them!” Paintbrush turned to look at the paintbrush Jacob was trapped inside of, wicked sharp smile and pure joy in his eyes. “Oh but Jacob?  _ What ever will I draw with? _ ”

 

Paintbrush picked up the paintbrush and slowly moved it towards the cavity in Gage’s chest, blood pooling around his body, while his entrails had been thrown around the room like streamers. He said that he was going to have some fun with his corpse, after all. He always did like parties.

 

He made sure that Jacob could see outside of the astral plane, to see the physical world and see what he was going to do with him. Jacob was watching, he was watching wide eyed and eyes watering. Paintbrush laughed a little.

 

Paintbrush hummed a little song as he painted with Gage’s blood. He didn’t quite know what the song was himself, making it up on the fly, but he liked it. It was upbeat and cheery and just the perfect music to murder by.

 

Looking at his finished masterpiece, Paintbrush looked to the astral, or the void, as Jacob called it. He liked that, he thought he might take to calling it that. Jacob was sitting despondent again. 

 

Paintbrush near skipped into the kitchen to put his blood painting up on the fridge. “Told you that bumblebee magnet was cute Jacob! And my painting makes it look cuter if I say so myself!”

 

“Oh!” Paintbrush suddenly cried, eyes lighting up like a flip had been switched. “I forgot in all of the fun were were having! I have something to attend to with Gage!”

 

He walked over to his body, reaching into his hoodie pocket with some hesitation. Not because of the blood,  _ oh of course not because of the blood,  _ in fact he reveled in how it was still slightly warm, the texture, slightly too thick to be water but not by much, how it just added onto the dried blood already caked onto his hands and the sharp metallic smell like a jar of change left on a windowsill on a hot, sunny day. No, he hesitated because it was, well, it was  _ Gage’s pocket _ . Who knew what would be in there? He shuddered. Paintbrush didn’t exactly want to find out.

 

He pulled the glass frame from his pocket, sharp grin on his face as usual. He lifted it up with a laugh, before throwing it against the floor with force. It shattered, the pieces seemed to refract light in a rainbow of colours before the colours faded away, leaving normal looking glass.

 

Paintbrush laughed. “I guess you really were useful after all Gage mate! First some good fun murder, then giving me some nice decorations for this place, and now a nice power boost.”

 

He looked down at Gage’s corpse, smiling almost serenely rather than his usual, sharp toothed, manic grin. All of a sudden without warning he kicked Gage’s head hard with the heel of his shoe. His skull cracked in a sickening crunch of sinew and bone and muscle. Even more blood started to pool around his body, brain matter all over the floor. 

 

Paintbrush tapped the toe of his shoe against the floor, getting some blood and brain matter off of it. “Well, let’s explore the house a little more, eh Jacob?”

 

\---

 

Dan had decided to make a kind of meeting in Taylor’s room to discuss what to do about Paintbrush, and break the news about Gage’s death and Charles now missing arm. He did not, however, ask Taylor about this before he and his friends showed up at his door.

 

“Daniel what the fuck?” Taylor asked, crossing his arms as he opened the door. “What is this? It’s bad enough letting one of you guys in here, let alone your whole group.”

 

“Taylor,” Dan hissed, looking about ready to punch him. Taylor also looked about ready to punch Dan. “we need to have a meeting, about Paintbrush, and what to do. I asked the staff about getting you leave but they didn’t even seem to know what I meant, so it needs to be here so you can be involved.”

 

“Who said I wanted to be involved?” Taylor began to shut the door.

 

“Nonono wait Taylor-!” Dan cried, shoving his arm through the door to block it. Taylor sighed.

 

“What? Why should I let you in?” Dan would have responded, but there was a pause as Taylor turned around. “Shut up Clone One, I don’t want them in here, especially not when-”

 

“Sorry for interrupting Taylor but uh... We, really need to go in here.” Dan tried asking nicely, everyone behind him looked pretty bored and frustrated. “Please?”

 

Taylor shut the door on Dan’s arm. 

 

“Agh! Okay fuck it we’re coming in here Taylor!” Dan opened the door and pushed past Taylor. Coraline and Mary looked at each other. Everyone followed him inside.

 

Taylor practically growled, shutting the door behind them and choosing to sit in the corner, rather than in the circle everyone else had formed. He tried his best to look as uninterested and annoyed as possible as he fiddled with a buckle on his boot. The annoyed part was easy, he was incredibly annoyed, but he was admittedly kind of interested.

 

Dan looked around awkwardly, unsure where to start or what to say. So uh, I know you’ve been wondering where Gage, Jacob and Charles are, yeah?“

 

Everyone nodded or said yes, except Anastasia who turned to Mary and whispered a “Wait who’s Gage again?”

 

“I don’t actually know where Jacob is, at least not yet.” Dan began. He started messing with one of the zippers on his leather jacket. “Gage is...” He bit his lip.

 

Coraline looked at him, concerned. “What is it? Where is he?”

 

“Gage is dead. He- He was murdered.” 

 

There was a wave of reaction from the group. Sadness and shock and talking and maybe a little crying. Gage may have been… well, Gage, but he was still their friend.

 

“Okay, alright, shut the fuck up.” Taylor said, getting up and walking into the middle of the circle, pushing Dan aside. “There’s still more to hear so don’t start your sobbing just yet.”

 

“Hey Ta-” Taylor cut Daniel off.

 

“Shut up Daniel. Okay, Gage is dead. Pretty fucking awful murder, I saw it myself. So sloppy, I could do much better. -  _ Don’t look at me like that I only mean theoretically. -  _ Jacob is somewhere, who knows. We’ll work on finding him. Or alternatively, finding his corpse. Charles is at home, his arm is gone -  _ Oh would you be quiet while I’m speaking! -  _ I made him a prosthetic, it’s fine guys.” Taylor sighed, running a hand through his hair, as everyone started talking to each other.

 

“Who did all of this? Do you know?” Mary asked.

 

Taylor grinned. “There we are! Mary’s on it. Just as I was about to say before I was so rudely interrupted. Jacob decided to be a total fucking idiot and not follow my advice! And so he let Paintbrush out of the paintbrush and he’s gone killing and maiming people.”

 

Coraline seemed to go through the stages of grief within a few seconds, right in front of Taylor’s eyes. Her concern turned to shock and then sadness and then fear and then anger. White hot, burning anger. He could see her trembling.

 

Mary went to lay a hand on her shoulder but Anastasia grabbed her arm, giving her a look, without words saying something along the lines of “Don’t, she won’t like that. I don’t want her to say or do something she doesn’t mean and get you hurt.”

 

Mary paused, and nodded slightly, turning back to look at Coraline. She was trembling still, hands balled into fists and tears running down her face. Her eyes were bright red, neck down and shoulders pulled up to her ears. Her wings were flaring out slightly, some feathers bristling. Aside from the shaking, she was rigid and unmoving, completely silent. She wasn’t even crying.

 

Dan was tense, looking at his friends in fear and some concern. He had never seen Coraline this angry. It was scary. 

 

He was angry too, maybe even somehow angrier than Coraline. Paintbrush had hurt Charles after all. Taken his arm slowly and painfully and torturously right in front of his eyes. He could imagine it, look back and see it as clear as day, even despite the tears that had been in his eyes. He could taste the tears and the vomit and oh God could he smell the blood, acidic and coppery and salty, hints of sickly honey sugar sweetness. He could feel it on his skin, warm and thicker than water was. Paintbrush’s laugh rung in his ears.

 

Jewel took a sharp breath, staring distantly at the floor. It was if it just clicked for her.

 

Taylor looked at his nails. Maybe he should paint them? Green? Oh God no, not green, that’d look awful. Black though? Probably. He looked back up. Yep, everyone was still crying and stuff. He looked back to his nails. Should he get some fake nails or just paint his natural ones? Maybe stiletto nails, he liked those.

 

He sighed as he heard sobbing. “Okay, okay, time to break this up. You’re gonna get tears on my floor. I’m already sick of Crystal’s tears everywhere, don’t add more please.”

 

Coraline seemed to be in a near catatonic state, but as soon as Taylor said that she looked at him, tears and rage in her eyes. “How can you just ask us to shut up!? Our friends are dead and injured and missing and it’s all his fucking fault! He’s taking everything from me! First my mother and now my friends! I knew we shouldn’t have fucking trusted him and look where it’s gotten us!”

 

Taylor deadpanned. “Weren’t you listening? I told you, I told Jacob not to and he didn’t listen. Don’t go blaming me.”

 

Coraline made a scream of frustration, pulling at her hair. “It’s not you Taylor! I’m not-! I’m not just aiming it at you it’s at everyone and Paintbrush and Jacob and- and myself! I should have fucking snapped that Paintbrush the moment I found out that it was what killed my mother! I should’ve-!” 

 

Coraline’s yelling devolved into more frustrated screams and then a mix of sobbing and anguished cried, she pulled her wings up protectively around her. It didn’t help her feel much safer.

 

Taylor folded his arms, staring off into space. He scratched at his arm a little, not even wincing as he opened old cuts. He didn’t like it. He didn’t like it when he heard people yelling and screaming like that, especially women, all violence and fury and malice. It- It reminded him of her. “Alright Coraline, let’s- let’s give you some time to calm down a little.”

 

Dan finally tore his eyes away from Coraline, though still extremely worried about her. “Do you have any ideas Taylor?”

 

Taylor made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a hum, looking to the side in thought and chewing his lip. “Maybe.” He said, walking over to one of his desks and rummaging through things. “I’ve not worked too much with manuin-”

 

“How do you know what manuin is!?”

 

“Unimportant Daniel. Anyway, I’ve not worked too much with manuin so I don’t have any definite ideas, just a lot of concepts.” He made a sort of clicking sound as he looked through blueprints. “No, not that- or maybe? No, oh I mean there’s that thing from back in March I suppose that could work? Where am I going to find titanium on such short notice though...”

 

“Taylor-?”

 

“No Daniel don’t I might have it just-! Don’t ruin my concentration! If I were to maybe add some manuin to the reactor with uhh...”

 

Taylor began to move around the room and slowly start building… something.

 

“C- Can we help in any way, Taylor?” Coraline choked out, starting to calm down.

 

“I’d rather you didn’t. I wouldn’t want you to mess it up in any way.” Taylor shrugged, fixing cables to the side of his invention. 

 

“Come on Taylor. I’m sure it’ll be fine, and it’ll go faster.” Dan rolled his eyes as he said it, “We couldn’t possibly fuck it up that bad.”

 

“No. No Daniel.”

 

“Taylor please. It’s important, we should try and get it finished quicker!”

 

Taylor sighed. “Fine. Pass me the hydrofluoric acid. It’s on the table there, the Teflon container. And actually, you should probably grab the calcium gluconate gel near it, I wouldn’t be surprised if you drop it. Be real careful though! It’s highly toxic and dangerous.”

 

Dan blinked. “Okay uhh, sure.”

 

He handed Taylor a bottle and a container of gel, which Taylor absentmindedly took off of him, focused on his work. He poured in a capful, before he froze, and quickly read the bottle. 

 

“Daniel you fucking idiot! This isn’t hydrofluoric acid, it’s  _ hydrochloric acid. _ ”

 

“Uh, similar names?” He said semi-nervously, with a small shrug.

 

“We should all just run.” Taylor said, looking away from Dan and down at his machine. “This will… probably cause an explosive reaction.”

 

“Oh.” Anastasia said.

 

They all ran out of the building and into the woods as fast as they could. There was a deafening explosion and a burst of light from behind them. Their ears started ringing.

 

“Uh, sorry Taylor.” Dan said.

 

“Leave.” Taylor sighed.

 

After they had left, a dead leaf blew past and hit Taylor in the face. Without looking at it or saying so much of a word, Taylor grabbed it and ate it.

 

He loved the crunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 


End file.
